Posts tagged Doug Baldwin

And keys to the game

By Carl Hoglin

The Seattle Seahawks travel east to face the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday in a matchup between two sophomore Quarterbacks. Russell Wilson and Andrew Luck have both made huge strides for their respectable teams and will continue to do so after Sundays game.

This will be the first matchup between the two since they came into the league last year in different rounds. Andrew Luck was taken #1 overall by the Colts last year, where Russell Wilson was taken #75 overall.

Nevertheless, a football game isn’t decided by what rounds their Quarterbacks are taken.

Both teams have had a great September start, with the Seahawks going 4-0, and the Colts sitting at 3-1. These two teams have played against each other 10 times before, with Sundays matchup being number 11. Seattle has won the matchup between these two teams only 4 times.

The last time these two teams met was in 2009, well before both Quarterbacks were drafted. Since 2009, both of these teams have vastly changed. Seneca Wallace and Peyton Manning are no longer running the shows.

Both Offenses are strikingly similar in stats. Russell Wilson is 59/96(61.5%) for 787 yards with 6 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Andrew Luck is 81/127(63.8%) for 915 yards with 5 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Wilson has been sacked 13 times for a loss of 84 yards. Luck has been sacked 10 times for a loss of 59 yards.

The Seahawks have managed to total up 1409 offensive yards(577 rushing, 832 passing). The Colts have put up 1495 total yards(601 rushing, 894 passing). Both teams have put up 12 touchdowns. Seattle is managing 27.2 points a game, good enough for 6th in the league. Indianapolis is pushing 26.2 which puts them at 9th in the league.

Defense has been a focal point for both of these teams. Seattle is only allowing 11.8 points per game(2nd), while Indianapolis is allowing 12.8(9th). Seattle boasts the Legion of Boom, which has accounted for 6 of the teams 7 interceptions. Indianapolis has managed to intercept opposing Quarterbacks 6 different times themselves. Indianapolis has registered 13 different sacks, Seattle has only put up 11. Indianapolis has forced three different fumbles, whereas Seattle has managed to force 6.

These two teams have played two of the same teams. We can use them as a slight comparison.

Both teams have played San Francisco and Jacksonville.

The Seahawks trounced the 49ers(in Seattle) 29-3, while the Colts went to Candlestick and dismantled the 49ers 27-7. The Seahawks also bludgeoned the Jaguars(in Seattle) 45-17, whereas the Colts went into EverBank Field and took care of the Jaguars 37-3. In the two weeks the Seahawks outscored the two 74-20, while the Colts outscored the two by 64-10.

Going into Lucas Oil Stadium with a unbeaten record, Seattle has to be on their game. Indianapolis’ only loss came at home to the Miami Dolphins.

If the Seahawks are wanting to leave with a win, they have to be fully prepared.

Russell Wilson will have to be himself, calm under pressure and precise. Facing the looks of Cory Redding, Aubrayo Franklin, and Fifi Moala, Wilson will have to make quick reads.

The Colts defense is allowing 200 yards passing a game. Golden Tate, Doug Baldwin, and Sidney Rice all need to create separation and get open. Greg Toler, Vontae Davis, Antoine Bethea, and Sergio Brown all will be keeping close tabs on them.

Marshawn Lynch needs another big game. Colts’ defense is allowing 100 yards rushing a game. Lynch needs to get all of that himself to wear them down. The offense cannot go three and out repeatedly and expect to win.

Richard Sherman and the rest of the Legion of Boom need to pressure Reggie Wayne, Darrius Heyward-Bey, and Dwayne Allen. The defense has to put a stop to the offensive power that the Colts possess. Sherman, Chancellor, and Thomas all have two picks each, and need to nab atleast two more. Maybe Brandon Browner will get two this week to catch up with the rest of the LOB. The Seahawks have held opposing offenses to 300.2 yards a game, and this game needs to be less. If Andrew Luck gets on a streak like Matt Schaub did last game it will put more pressure on the offense to put up more points. The defense gets Bruce Irvin back this week, after serving a 4 game suspension for PED use. Irvin may be a little rusty because of the loss in action.

Although the injury report is rather vague at this point, both teams have a few key players either questionable or probable for Sunday. Injuries at certain positions can debilitate a team if they don’t have capable backup.

Breno Giacomini is questionable, and Russell Okung is out, that leaves Seattle with two backup tackles. Max Under(center) is also listed as questionable at this point. Without those three key players, Seattle is missing 3 offensive linemen for the second game in a row.

Colts’ Ahmed Bradshaw and LaRon Landry are both listed as questionable for this game as well.

While the focus is on these two sophomore quarterbacks and how exactly they will perform, there will be a game going on. Russell Wilson, and Andrew Luck cannot be on the field 100% of the plays.

This war between two teams should be brutal, both teams want to extend their winning records. Neither team is going to just roll over and allow the other to steamroll to a win. When the game clock rolls down to 0, the winning quarterback will be crowned like the rest of the game didn’t matter. The Seahawks went into Houston, and played a great team, now they have to go into Indianapolis and face a better team. Indianapolis faced a good defense when they faced the 49ers, but they haven’t faced the caliber that the Seahawks possess.

Seahawks drop passes and an opportunity

The only player who seemed to be able to catch Russell Wilson‘s passes on Thursday, Doug Baldwin, was out of the game before the end of the first half. It is no wonder the Seahawks could not get anything going offensively in the second half.

Marshawn Lynch #24

For the third time this season, Marshawn Lynch ran for over 100-yards. Unfortunately, the Seahawks are now 1-2 when he hits the century mark.

The 49ers averaged 3.6-yards per carry coming into the game, yet Marshawn was able to average 5.4-yards per attempt.

Currently, Lynch is ranked third in the league with 652-yards on the ground, and he is fourth in the league averaging 4.4-yards per carry.

Brandon Browner #39

The Seattle Seahawks defense only gave up 140-yards through the air on Thursday, that is an achievement earned by the entire secondary.

Brandon Browner‘s interception is what separated him from the rest of the players.

The 49ers were driving the ball down the field when Browner intercepted Alex Smith’s pass in the end zone. Brandon should have kneeled the ball down taking a touchback, but instead he made the mistake of trying to return it. He only made it out to the three yard line.

Lynch had this third 100-yard game of the season, Thursday against the 49ers. Photo Credit: SFGate

As soon as he caught the ball I think he had flash backs to his 94-yards touchdown return against the Giants last season. More…

Seattle made the plays that mattered

After the Seahawks imploded in the second quarter, and stumbled their way through the 3rd quarter, they found themselves down by 13 points with less than 10 minutes to play.

From that moment on, both sides of the ball made every play they had to.

Sure, Tom Brady and the Patriots racked up 475-yards in total offense. But, when it mattered the most, theSeattle Seahawks defense held the Patriots two yards short.

Russell Wilson #3

I have to throw out his line for everyone. Partially because it seems like people like to talk about his stats, and partly because I love numbers.

16/27 for 293-yards, 3 touchdown and no interceptions. Plus, 5 rushes for 17-yards. It all adds up to a 133.7 Rating and a QBR of 91.4. If you felt like you have read that before, I stole it from my MMQB piece last night.

In case you didn’t read that piece, let me point out that the last time a Seattle Seahawks quarterback had that much of an impact (QBR) in a game was week three of the 2008 season.

Sidney Rice made several nice plays throughout the game. (Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)

We were able to see Russell Wilson air the ball out quite a bit on Sunday. I have to be honest, I am extremely impressed with the way he throws a deep ball. The last time I saw someone throw a ball like that, for the Seahawks, was before Matt Hasselbeck.

From here on out, defenses will have to game plan against big passing plays. That should limit the amount of defenders opposing teams are willing to stack in the box.

Which should really help the running game, not that it isn’t pretty good already.

Sidney Rice #18

Sidney Rice made several nice plays throughout the game. He also messed a few up, we will skip over those for the purpose of this piece. After it was all said and done, two plays put Rice on my list. More. . .

Wilson’s other touchdown was a great pass, followed by a great catch by Doug Baldwin, who had 2 receptions for 74 yards on that scoring drive.

Welcome back Doug! Baldwin, had 2 receptions for 74 yards and a HUGE TD!

The New England Patriots got the ball back with 1:14 to go in the 4th quarter. They had already squandered all of their time outs. Tom Brady threw a pass out of bounds, got sacked by Jason Jones, and skipped a pass to Aaron Hernandez which brought up a 4th down withe 17-yards to go from their own 13 yard line.

After a quick pass to Wes Welker, Bobby Wagnerdrilled Welker at the 29 yard-line, 2 yards short of the first down.

Bring on the Victory Formation!

Of course, the Patriots had several chances to put the Seahawks away long before that final drive.

At the end of the first half, Russell Wilson fumbled the ball near mid-field and the Patriots recovered it. With 1 second left in the half, Tom Brady threw the ball out of the back of the end zone. More. . .

Five things to watch

Before the season started, I would have been more than happy with a 2-2 record. Of course, I would have assumed the Seattle Seahawks beat the Cardinals and the Rams. Instead, Seattle lost those both of those games, but they did defeat the Cowboys and the Packers, at home.

No matter how you slice it, the Seahawks have a record of .500, and last place in the NFC West.

Who would have thought the division, who had a 7-9 Seahawks team win it two years before, would become the best division in football.

Quarterback

So much has been made of the performance ofRussell Wilsonthis week. Yes, he is the starting quarterback, there is a certain amount of pressure that comes with the position.

Personally, I think the 12th man has been a little hard on the young man. I am not going to waste everyone’s time by stating the reasons why I believe that in this piece, but if you haven’t seen my opinion, or would like a refresher, click the link to the “Player Spotlight” piece I wrote on Wilson this week.

With all that said, or not said, I do want to see some improvement from him during the next four games.

Pete Carroll is a very tough man to get a good read on.

Far too often, Russell Wilson is missing wide open receivers. As most of you probably know, I was a proponent of letting him sit on the bench, behind Matt Flynn, for a year so that he could learn the pro game.

If he doesn’t start making more correct reads, I think that is exactly where he will end up.

Pete Carroll is a very tough man to get a good read on. On a personal level, I like the guy, but I would never play poker with him.

Honestly, I think Pete is putting himself in position to switch quarterbacks at any time.

It will be interesting to see if Wilson will be able to move the offense well enough to remain the teams starter, or if Pete will decide that it is time to try to “Win with Flynn”.

Seahawks All Access

Last season, heading into training camp, Doug Baldwin was simply hoping to make the final roster. Coming out of Stanford, it was easy to see that the young receiver was extremely talented, unfortunately, for his wallet, and fortunately, for the Seattle Seahawks, Doug didn’t have the “measurables”.

He’s not extremely fast, he is extremely short, and although he put up good numbers in college, teams were unsure how that would transfer to the NFL.

I feel confident saying there are 31 other teams that wished they drafted Baldwin.

Though teams were unwilling to spend a draft pick in hopes his game would translate, many were willing to spend money to acquire him (in the form of a rookie free agent signing bonus, part of the undrafted free agent program of the new CBA).

What a difference a year makes

Seattle offered Doug a $17,500 signing bonus, and he took it.

What a steal for the Seahawks, not only was he the 41st ranked receiver by the end of the season, he also led Seattle in receiving yards.

I feel fairly confident saying there are 31 other teams that wished they had used a draft pick on him. Baldwin former head coach at Stanford, current 49ers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh went as far as to admit it.

Seahawks Player Grades

Wide Receiver

1) Ben Obomanu (B+)

Last week B-

THE GOOD:

Ben recovered the first fumble while covering the kick off and was smart just to stay down and not risk fumbling the ball himself trying to get up. He made another big play covering kicks when he flew down the field and made a tackle short of the 20 yard line. Obomanu fought back to the quarterback to make a catch for a first down.

THE BAD:

That first down catch for 10 yards was his only reception of the game.

2) Sidney Rice (B-)

Last week he led the team with a B+

THE GOOD:

Sidney had a nice block for Zach Miller after Miller caught the ball. On a third down play he made a nice diving catch but unfortunately he was just short of the marker.

THE BAD:

He only had 14 yards receiving for the game.

3) Doug Baldwin (C+)

Last week B

THE GOOD:

Doug had a 50 yard reception in the game.

THE BAD:

Unfortunately that was his only reception and he would leave the game later with an injury.

4) Golden Tate (C-)

Last week he was not graded

THE GOOD:

Tate made an excellent catch on the sidelines.

THE BAD:

Golden fumbled the ball but was lucky it went out of bounds because there were no Seahawks around to recover it if it had stayed in. He was called for illegal motion because he didn’t get set before the snap.

5) Mike Williams (D+)

Last week B-

THE GOOD:

I just can’t spin anything good here.

THE BAD:

He was targeted on a hitch and waited for the ball to come to him instead of fighting back towards it. Because he did this the defender was able to get around him and break up the pass. In an altercation he was the last player to shove the opposition and got himself a personal foul. The call was pretty weak but he should have kept his cool.

Tight End

1) Zach Miller (B+)

THE GOOD:

Zach had a nice backside cut block and a few other nice blocks in the running game. He pushed the pile at the end of runs to help the running back gain every yard they could. Miller did a nice job sitting down in the soft spot in the zone.

THE BAD:

He missed a cut block.

2) Anthony McCoy (D+)

THE GOOD:

Anthony pulled out this superman Esq block where he flew through the air. It wasn’t the most successful block I have ever seen but it was effective enough and showed effort. He had a couple more nice run blocks.

THE BAD:

For the most part he struggled trying to block people. He missed cut blocks, couldn’t hold blocks or just went after the wrong guy to block completely.